#76591
07/20/2002 5:45 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Someone called during the grammarian spot on a local radio program recently to inquire about "spittin' image" (as in "He is the spittin' image of his father.") A second caller phoned in a variant, "spit and image." And a third caller solved the whole mystery. (A fourth caller solved it again, but it was generally felt her answer was inferior). Care to gander?
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#76592
07/20/2002 11:35 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 475
addict
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addict
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 475 |
from bartleby spit and image, spitten image, spittin’ image, spitting image, very spit of The key to this puzzling cliché is the word spit, which seems to have been an early-nineteenth-century dialectal noun meaning “an exact likeness or counterpart of a person or thing,” as in He’s the very spit of his father. The question is, how did spit develop that sense, dialectal or not? The Oxford English Dictionary concludes that it developed somehow from the noun spit, meaning “expectorated saliva,” but no really satisfactory explanation of the semantic change involved has thus far turned up. In the late nineteenth century the full cliché developed: He’s the very spit and image of his father, followed by the folk etymology that replaced spit and with spitting (or spittin’ or spitten) image. The phrase has a rather countrified air about it, and it is not likely to be found today in either Formal writing or at the higher levels of speech not that illuminating so i tried http://babel.uoregon.edu/romance/rl407/borrowing/borrowing.htmlthis threw a bit more light on it but http://www.takeourword.com/Issue019.htmlwas better, word detective had this to say on the matter (scroll down to the end) http://www.word-detective.com/052598.htmland the linguist hotly debated it some years ago http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/4/4-780.html, well thats all well and good but do i have anything to say of my own? not really, 'cept, i liked the telly programme when i was a kid 
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#76593
07/20/2002 6:56 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
According to the first caller, "spitin' image" and "spit and image" are both corruptions of "spirit and image." But my authority is anonymous.
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#76594
07/21/2002 1:15 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
"spitin' image" and "spit and image" are both corruptions of "spirit and image"Sounds a bit too "clean" to be true to me, IP. How about the meaning of "spit" as in a slender pointed rod for holding meat over a fire [M-W]? Once upon a time this rod would have been wood rather than metal, in which case "spitt'n image" may have been akin to "chip off the old block". Are spit and splinter related?? Another alternative is taking "spit" as both something that is spat out, and something pointy that sticks out (spit of land). If someone is the "spit" of someone else they are their "issue" (from inside) and their "extrusion" (outside). You can't get much more closely related than that! 
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#76595
07/21/2002 2:05 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I have occasionally heard the following expression, when a child looks "exactly" like a parent (said to the lookalike parent): "You could have spit him/her out all by yourself". Whether this is based on spitting image or not, I don't know.
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#76596
07/21/2002 8:58 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
based on spitting image or not...T’other way around, Jackie, according to the OED citation quoted in Dody’s excellent Linguist link: …the following OED citations:
(1690) We are of our father the devil,...as like him as if spit out of his mouth.http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/4/4-780.html(great detective work, Dody!)
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#76597
07/22/2002 3:31 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<<We are as of our father the devil,...>>
This was the suggestion of the less favored caller.
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